Pyramid Review

Kingdoms of Kalamar (for Dungeons & Dragons)

Edited by David S. Kenzer

272 color pages; $34.95

In 1994, the Kingdoms of Kalamar first made its appearance as a setting
designed for any game system, but had numerous game stats relating to 2nd
edition Dungeons & Dragons. Even the adventures and sourcebooks that came out for it, while
aimed at "any game system" were heavily peppered with D&D stats. So now that
the Kingdoms are an official Dungeons & Dragons setting, what do you get?
Just the opposite, a setting with very few D&D specific references.

This hardcover is broken up into ten chapters with seven appendices. The
first chapter, "The Humans of Tellene," gives brief information about the
different types of humans found in the setting, Tellene being the name of
the world. There are six different types of humans with variations within
each branch. The red-haired Kalamarans, the fair-skinned Brandobians, the
yellow-skinned Dejy, the blonde-haired, pale-skinned Fhokki, the olive-skinned
Reanaarians and the dark-skinned, black-haired Svimohz. Each section is
brief and only gives a hint as to what each culture is capable of.

In addition to the human breakdown, there are bits on warfare, religion,
climate, and cities. The cities section explains how the detailed parts
will be broken down when presented: Name, Population, City at a Glance,
Government, Economy, Military, Temples, Mages & Sages, Underworld,
Interesting . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.